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I like taking garden photos. This is because I have a garden that I quite like, generally. I also like my in-laws garden, which has recently had a bit of a horticultural make-over that looked fantastic when we visited in August (yes, still on the backlog…) This wasn’t long after I’d got the macro lens and I wanted to have a play with the f2.8 aperture it offered.

My ticket for the London 2012 Paralympics Closing Ceremony may be the best £100 I’ve ever spent. I can’t really explain how good this night was. Good company, amazing performances, a feel of celebration and appropriate closure, and the best send-off to an incredible summer. If I can’t explain it in written form, I can come a little closer with photos.

As I mentioned in my last post some 3 weeks ago, I was, at that time, about to be off on holiday to Italy. Which is why nothing happened here for 2 weeks, and that third week was spent uploading and editing the photos I took – some 600 of them. This is the first post of a few from the trip.

We went for a two week break to the northern end of Tuscany known as the Garfagnana, an mountainous area which is not necessarily what you expect when you first think of Tuscany. We’d originally wanted to go to the parts of Tuscany you imagine – yellow plains, cypress trees, villas dotted about between historic towns and cities. But we’d only settled on this destination a little late in the day for holiday booking, and the property we ended up renting was an unexpectedly good deal in what looked like beautiful scenery.

Beautiful it was indeed, and the property wasn’t entirely unphotogenic either. Let me introduce you to Il Vecchio Mulino – a former water mill just outside the hilltop town of Coregelia Antelminelli.

This post may mark a slightly new style of blogging here, for various reasons. I’ve been blogging here for a few months, but my post rate hasn’t been high – I began by writing my posts in a discussion style, but this has become hard to maintain as I simply feel like I am repeating myself, and I also tend to work in a compartmental sort of way which means I don’t necessarily recall everything I did to get a photo when I get around to writing about it. The writing hasn’t flowed freely as a result, and it’s taken me a long time to grind out a post, and it hasn’t read back well either. However, I have enjoyed the platform for sharing photos, and raising questions and discussions on specific issues. So my intention for the time being is to begin posting more photos without as much writing, if indeed any at all beyond a simple introduction to time/place/event should I have nothing particularly worthwhile saying.

As such, I now bring you: our pond and it’s inhabitants on a sunny May afternoon. I shot Aperture Priority, having progressed a bit since my last few posts. First up, the frogs:

Av, 300mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640

Av, 300mm, 1/100sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

Av, 300mm, 1/250sec, f/8.0, ISO 800

Av, 300mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

Then, and I don’t want you to be too excited by this (really. REALLY.) but I seem to have accidentally documented some pond skater porn. And I am quite worried about the search terms that may bring people to this page as a result.

Av, 300mm, 1/500sec, f/5.6, ISO 400

Av, 300mm, 1/160sec, f/8.0, ISO 800

Newts, and what looks alarmingly like a small dinosaur…

Av, 300mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

Av, 191mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 160

But for the most part, I went to town on the large quantity of damsel flies that like our iris.

Av, 300mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400

Av, 300mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

Av, 300mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800

Av, 300mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200

Av, 300mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

Av, 300mm, 1/500 sec, f/8.0, ISO 500

I have to say, I am feeling now like I am using the camera much more instinctively. I think I’ve got to the place of using various options – as with all new technology – as second nature instead of having to hunt and think carefully about each process. It’s a nice place to be, and I am looking forward even more to several good photo opportunities looming on the horizon.